Webb Surprised by Hangtown Podium

Motoonline  Competition Post: Troy Guenther

First podium of the Pro Motocross season at Hangtown's second round.

Image: Octopi Media.

A podium result at Hangtown came earlier than Cooper Webb had anticipated as he continues to build in the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship.

Webb skipped the outdoors altogether last season and entered Fox Raceway’s opener this year off the back of his 450SX title challenge being cut short with a concussion sustained at Nashville.

The Red Bull KTM rider notched 4-5 results in Pala for fifth overall, before posting a calculated ride to P4 in the opening moto at Hangtown. Moto two on Saturday saw Webb assume second place early in the moto and later capitalized on a mistake from teammate Aaron Plessinger to secure the runner-up. A 4-2 scorecard saw him third overall on the day.

“Yeah, I’m stoked man,” said Webb. “That second moto was great for me, I got a good start and ran up front. It was definitely a difficult track to pass on, it helped me though to kind of latch on and get to know the pace and yeah, just get my outdoor legs a little bit again.

“I struggled in the first moto, but we made a bike change that was better for the second one. It was just good to be back battling, the first one I was a distant fourth, just kind of riding around by myself.

“It was good to get a good start and be in the mix, be in the fight and get a podium. I am stoked man, I didn’t expect it to come this early by any means and I still feel like I have a long ways to go, so I am really happy with the performance today.”

Two rounds into the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship and Webb is third in the 450MX standings, 26 points from red plate-holder Jett Lawrence (Team Honda HRC).

2023 FIM WORLD SUPERCROSS

2023 FIM WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM LINEUPS FINALISED WITH 40 RIDERS REPRESENTING NINE COUNTRIES

Josh Hill, Kevin Moranz, Anthony Rodriguez, Grant Harlan and more added to the team's rosters

The FIM World Supercross Championship has today announced the finalisation of the rider roster for the upcoming 2023 season. With the remaining 13 rider spots now filled, the anticipation for the opening round in Birmingham continues to build.

SX Global CEO Adam Bailey said this announcement marks an important milestone in the organisation’s efforts to take Supercross to fans around the world with an even greater spread of international talent.

“Since day one, it’s been our ambition to draw talent from all over the world, and I feel that this year’s lineup to date supports that,” said Bailey.

“The teams have done a fantastic job assembling a remarkable group of top riders determined to win a World Title, and we have athletes from the USA, France, England, Scotland, Venezuela, Germany, Australia, Canada and Brazil.

“We have a mix of returning riders and new faces, and each rider brings their own unique style, personality and fan following that will translate into fantastic racing and intense rivalries.

“We’re just weeks away from Birmingham, and we couldn’t be more excited to arrive in England at the start of our first full season. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds when racing kicks off at Villa Park.”

The Craig Dack Racing team will remain virtually unchanged as Josh Hill returns to the WSX 450 class, while Aaron Tanti and Luke Clout will contest a second season in the SX2 250 class. Tanti will be out for redemption when the new season kicks off after just falling shy of the podium in 2022, finishing 4^th overall.

Rounding out the BUD Racing team are Frenchmen Anthony Bourdon and Adrien Escoffier, who will contest the SX2 250 class in this year’s Championship. The two riders had strong seasons in 2022, both finishing in the top 10 in the WSX 450 class.

Jace Owen is another familiar face returning to the World Supercross Championship arena. He has switched to the Team GSM camp for 2023 but will continue to race in the SX2 250 class.

Three new recruits in the WSX 450 class are Kevin Moranz, Honda NILS, Anthony Rodriguez, MDK Motorsports SX, and Grant Harlan, Craig Dack Racing.

World Supercross Championship newcomers in the SX2 250 class include younguns Cullin Park and Hunter Yoder, who will enjoy learning from their legendary PMG teammate Ken Roczen, Max Miller, who joins MDK Motorsports, and Gage Linville, who will join Firepower Polyflor Honda.

Deja Vu!

It appears Honda has finally found a replacement for RC. I think the "Fat Lady" is already warming up her voice. Jett is blasting off!

Times Are Changing

It sure seems like a new era is here, both with the winners and the tracks in Pro Motocross. The Lawrence brothers begin their takeover of both classes, and now Haiden Deegan is on the board as a moto winner. The tracks and the game have changed. Jason Weigandt walks and talks and even finds the Deegan crew for their take on the track and the changes.

Herlings Goes 1-1 at Latvia

TWO-TIME 250 WORLD CHAMPION TOM VIALLE ON WHAT’S HARDER—MXGP OR AMA?

Tom Vialle is a two-time MXGP World Champion in the MX2 (250) class and he recently made the move from Europe to the USA with the Red Bull KTM team. After winning two titles overseas, Tom would be forced to race the 450 class in MXGP, but he decided to take a chance and come to America to ride for Roger Decoster's team, train with Aldon Baker and race AMA Supercross and motocross. In this interview, Tom compares the track differences and the race formats in MXGP and AMA racing.

Lawrence Bros Top Hangtown

 Post: Alex Gobert

Another 1-1 performance sees rookie increase early advantage.

Image: Octopi Media.

Another clean-sweep for Jett Lawrence saw the Team Honda HRC rider continue his dominance at Hangtown as a rookie in the 450MX class of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship.

It was Dylan Ferrandis (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing) and Cooper Webb (Red Bull KTM) who got the initial jump on of the gates in moto one, but Lawrence sliced his way into the lead through the first turn and controlled the race from there.

As the 19-year-old appeared to do it with relative ease at the front, eventually extending to a winning margin of 4.122s after cruising on the final lap, a solid ride from Ferrandis saw him overcome Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM) for the runner-up result – the pair battling closely throughout the moto for position and the latter keeping things interesting all the way through to the end.

Webb was a lonely fourth, as was Adam Cianciarulo (Monster Energy Kawasaki) in fifth to open the day’s proceedings. P6 through 10th included Fredrik Noren (Twisted Tea Suzuki), class newcomer Ty Masterpool (Kawasaki) on debut, Derek Drake (BarX Suzuki), Lorenzo Locurcio (GasGas) and Jerry Robin (Yamaha).

Four starts, four wins. That’s the tally for Lawrence to open his 450MX career after clinching another overall at Hangtown this afternoon, building upon his points-lead in the process. Lawrence again hit the front on lap one despite not getting the holeshot and he was able to manage his buffer from there, crossing the finish-line by 5.041s in the end.

An impressive second on return to the outdoors was Webb, who was able to fend off Ferrandis in the final laps – that pair taking advantage of a late mishap for Plessinger that cost him a podium opportunity. Fourth in the race was Cianciarulo, with Jose Butron (GasGas) racing to a top-five result ahead of Plessinger, Masterpool, Drake, Robin and Romain Pape (GasGas).

It was Lawrence with the round victory ahead of Ferrandis and Webb, while in the championship Lawrence already has an 18-point lead, now over Ferrandis and with Webb climbing to third heading to Thunder Valley, Colorado, next Saturday, 10 June.

Rumour: Changes to the Yamaha MXGP structure in 2024?

Things have been quite quiet in the MXGP paddock as far as rumours go for the 2024 season but the word of the paddock at the moment is that changes are expected at Yamaha for next year.

At the moment, Louis Vosters from Wilvo runs the Factory Yamaha MXGP team with Hans Corvers from Kemea running the MX2 GP setup but changes are expected for 2024.

Vosters has been a sponsor in the sport for many years but in 2016 joined forces with Tim Mathys to become more involved. Four years later and he was running the Factory Yamaha setup in MXGP and has done ever since. Covers ran the Kemea Yamaha team for a number of years before the team also went full factory for the 2020 season.

For 2024, it’s thought that Covers from Kemea will step up and run the MXGP World Championship. The Belgian will have Jago Geerts and Maxime Renaux under the awning who he has worked with in the past while it remains to be seen if Glenn Coldenhoff or Jeremy Seewer will be retained as both their contracts are up.

The Hutten Metaal Yamaha team who have been the official Yamaha team in the EMX250 series are expected to run the MX2 GP team from 2024. It’s actually been rumoured that Covers could run both MX2 and MXGP setup’s but it’s believed that Hutten Metaal will step up and run the MX2 GP team. The team won the EMX250 titles with Thibault Benistant and Rick Elzinga in the past so know the riders well. They’d be expected to retain Andrea Bonacorsi for 2024 as well which would be his rookie MX2 World Championship season.

With the Hutten Metaal Yamaha team expected to run the MX2 GP team in 2024, that would leave space for a team to run the official EMX250 team next year.

The big question is if this comes to fruition, where would it leave Louis Vosters who has done a great job at Yamaha running the factory effort the past three years. Would he job forces with another team? Start Ja

Can Adam Cianciarulo Win Hangtown?

HOW STEM CELL TREATMENTS MIGHT REJUVENATE ADAM CIANCIARULO’S CAREER

Adam Cianciarulo was born and bred for motocross and he grew up with a spotlight following him through his amateur career and into the Pro ranks. Adam has been a lifelong Kawasaki ambassador, riding for the Team Green program since he was nine years old on a Kawasaki KX65. Unfortunately, his Pro career has seen its fair share of injuries and AC9 is working hard to get back to the same speed that we saw outdoors in 2020 and 2021 when he was battling with Zach Osborne and Dylan Ferrandis for wins during the Pro Motocross season. In this interview, MXA’s Josh Mosiman caught up with Adam after the 2023 Fox Raceway National to get his take on the track and learn more about the stem cell therapy he’s been doing on his wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Wow Chase Sexton is Out for Hangtown!

BREAKING NEWS! CHASE SEXTON OUT FOR 2023

HANGTOWN NATIONAL

TORRANCE, Calif. (June 1, 2023) — Chase Sexton and Team Honda HRC have made the difficult decision to have the newly crowned AMA Supercross Champion miss round 2 of the AMA Pro Motocross series this weekend at Rancho Cordova, California’s Hangtown National, following a fall during testing this week.

Sexton was taking part in a multi-team test at Southern California’s Fox Raceway on Tuesday, May 30, where he had posted a strong second-overall result three days earlier during the opening round, despite some aches and pains from a qualifying crash. The Illinois native sustained a head impact in the test-session fall, prompting a doctor visit. In addition to a concussion being confirmed, Sexton was also diagnosed with mono, and the decision was made to have him take time off in order to recover. A return date isn’t yet certain, but Sexton hopes to return to the series as quickly as possible.